Genesis 4–11

Cain and Abel

4Then Adam had intercourse with his wife, and she became pregnant. She bore a son and said, “By the Lord’s help I have acquired a son.” So she named him Cain.^{t 2}Later she gave birth to another son, Abel. Abel became a shepherd, but Cain was a farmer. ³After some time, Cain brought some of his harvest and gave it as an offering to the Lord. ^4*Then Abel brought the first lamb born to one of his sheep, killed it, and gave the best parts of it as an offering. The Lord was pleased with Abel and his offering, ⁵but he rejected Cain and his offering. Cain became furious, and he scowled in anger. ⁶Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why that scowl on your face? ⁷If you had done the right thing, you would be smiling;^u but because you have done evil, sin is crouching at your door. It wants to rule you, but you must overcome it.”

^8*Then Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out in the fields.”^v When they were out in the fields, Cain turned on his brother and killed him.

⁹The Lord asked Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

He answered, “I don’t know. Am I supposed to take care of my brother?”

^10*Then the Lord said, “Why have you done this terrible thing? Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground, like a voice calling for revenge. ¹¹You are placed under a curse and can no longer farm the soil. It has soaked up your brother’s blood as if it had opened its mouth to receive it when you killed him. ¹²If you try to grow crops, the soil will not produce anything; you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.”

¹³And Cain said to the Lord, “This punishment is too hard for me to bear. ¹⁴You are driving me off the land and away from your presence. I will be a homeless wanderer on the earth, and anyone who finds me will kill me.”

¹⁵But the Lord answered, “No. If anyone kills you, seven lives will be taken in revenge.” So the Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who met him not to kill him. ¹⁶And Cain went away from the Lord’s presence and lived in a land called “Wandering”, which is east of Eden.

The Descendants

¹⁷Cain and his wife had a son and named him Enoch. Then Cain built a city and named it after his son. ¹⁸Enoch had a son named Irad, who was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael had a son named Methushael, who was the father of Lamech. ¹⁹Lamech had two wives, Adah and Zillah. ²⁰Adah gave birth to Jabal, who was the ancestor of those who raise livestock and live in tents. ²¹His brother was Jubal, the ancestor of all musicians who play the harp and the flute. ²²Zillah gave birth to Tubal Cain, who made all kinds of tools^w out of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal Cain was Naamah.

²³Lamech said to his wives,

“Adah and Zillah, listen to me: I have killed a young man because he struck me.

²⁴If seven lives are taken to pay for killing Cain,

Seventy-seven will be taken if anyone kills me.”

Seth and Enosh

²⁵Adam and his wife had another son. She said, “God has given me a son to replace Abel, whom Cain killed.” So she named him Seth.^{x 26}Seth had a son whom he named Enosh. It was then that people began using the Lord’s holy name in worship.

The Descendants of Adam

5^*This is the list of the descendants of Adam. (When God created human beings, he made them like himself. ^2*He created them male and female, blessed them, and named them “Humanity”.) ³When Adam was 130 years old, he had a son who was like him, and he named him Seth. ⁴After that, Adam lived another 800 years. He had other children ⁵and died at the age of 930.

⁶When Seth was 105, he had a son, Enosh, ⁷and then lived another 807 years. He had other children ⁸and died at the age of 912.

⁹When Enosh was 90, he had a son, Kenan, ¹⁰and then lived another 815 years. He had other children ¹¹and died at the age of 905.

¹²When Kenan was 70, he had a son, Mahalalel, ¹³and then lived another 840 years. He had other children ¹⁴and died at the age of 910.

¹⁵When Mahalalel was 65, he had a son, Jared, ¹⁶and then lived another 830 years. He had other children ¹⁷and died at the age of 895.

¹⁸When Jared was 162, he had a son, Enoch, ¹⁹and then lived another 800 years. He had other children ²⁰and died at the age of 962.

²¹When Enoch was 65, he had a son, Methuselah. ²²After that, Enoch lived in fellowship with God for 300 years and had other children. ²³He lived to be 365 years old. ^24*He spent his life in fellowship with God, and then he disappeared, because God took him away.

²⁵When Methuselah was 187, he had a son, Lamech, ²⁶and then lived another 782 years. He had other children ²⁷and died at the age of 969.

²⁸When Lamech was 182, he had a son, ²⁹and said, “From the very ground on which the Lord put a curse, this child will bring us relief from all our hard work”; so he named him Noah.^{y 30}Lamech lived another 595 years. He had other children ³¹and died at the age of 777.

³²After Noah was 500 years old, he had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

The Wickedness of Mankind

6^*When the human race had spread all over the world, and daughters were being born, ^2*some of the heavenly beings^z saw that these young women were beautiful, so they took the ones they liked. ^3*Then the Lord said, “I will not allow people to live for ever; they are mortal. From now on they will live no longer than a hundred and twenty years.” ^4*In those days, and even later, there were giants on the earth who were descendants of human women and the heavenly beings.^a They were the great heroes and famous men of long ago.

^5*When the Lord saw how wicked everyone on earth was and how evil their thoughts were all the time, ^6*he was sorry that he had ever made them and put them on the earth. He was so filled with regret ^7*that he said, “I will wipe out these people I have created, and also the animals and the birds, because I am sorry that I made any of them.” ^8*But the Lord was pleased with Noah.

Noah

^9–10*This is the story of Noah. He had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Noah had no faults and was the only good man of his time. He lived in fellowship with God, ¹¹but everyone else was evil in God’s sight, and violence had spread everywhere. ¹²God looked at the world and saw that it was evil, for the people were all living evil lives.

¹³God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to the whole human race. I will destroy them completely, because the world is full of their violent deeds. ¹⁴Build a boat for yourself out of good timber; make rooms in it and cover it with tar inside and out. ¹⁵Make it 133 metres long, 22 metres wide, and 13 metres high. ¹⁶Make a roof^b for the boat and leave a space of 44 centimetres between the roof^c and the sides. Build it with three decks and put a door in the side. ¹⁷I am going to send a flood on the earth to destroy every living being. Everything on the earth will die, ¹⁸but I will make a covenant with you. Go into the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives. ^19–20Take into the boat with you a male and a female of every kind of animal and of every kind of bird, in order to keep them alive. ²¹Take along all kinds of food for you and for them.” ^22*Noah did everything that God commanded.

The Flood

7The Lord said to Noah, “Go into the boat with your whole family; I have found that you are the only one in all the world who does what is right. ²Take with you seven pairs of each kind of ritually clean animal, but only one pair of each kind of unclean animal. ³Take also seven pairs of each kind of bird. Do this so that every kind of animal and bird will be kept alive to reproduce again on the earth. ⁴Seven days from now I am going to send rain that will fall for forty days and nights, in order to destroy all the living beings that I have made.” ⁵And Noah did everything that the Lord commanded.

⁶Noah was 600 years old when the flood came on the earth. ^7*He and his wife, and his sons and their wives, went into the boat to escape the flood. ⁸A male and a female of every kind of animal and bird, whether ritually clean or unclean, ⁹went into the boat with Noah, as God had commanded. ¹⁰Seven days later the flood came.

^11*When Noah was 600 years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month all the outlets of the vast body of water beneath the earth burst open, all the floodgates of the sky were opened, ¹²and rain fell on the earth for 40 days and nights. ¹³On that same day Noah and his wife went into the boat with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. ¹⁴With them went every kind of animal, domestic and wild, large and small, and every kind of bird. ¹⁵A male and a female of each kind of living being went into the boat with Noah, ¹⁶as God had commanded. Then the Lord shut the door behind Noah.

¹⁷The flood continued for 40 days, and the water became deep enough for the boat to float. ¹⁸The water became deeper, and the boat drifted on the surface. ¹⁹It became so deep that it covered the highest mountains; ²⁰it went on rising until it was about seven metres above the tops of the mountains. ²¹Every living being on the earth died—every bird, every animal, and every person. ²²Everything on earth that breathed died. ²³The Lord destroyed all living beings on the earth—human beings, animals, and birds. The only ones left were Noah and those who were with him in the boat. ²⁴The water did not start going down for 150 days.

The End of the Flood

8God had not forgotten Noah and all the animals with him in the boat; he caused a wind to blow, and the water started going down. ²The outlets of the water beneath the earth and the floodgates of the sky were closed. The rain stopped, ³and the water gradually went down for 150 days. ⁴On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the boat came to rest on a mountain in the Ararat range. ⁵The water kept going down, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.

⁶After 40 days Noah opened a window ⁷and sent out a raven. It did not come back, but kept flying around until the water was completely gone. ⁸Meanwhile, Noah sent out a dove to see if the water had gone…